Catching Up With Rockers Santa Cruz At Louder Than Life Festival 2019

Finnish hard-rockers SANTA CRUZ are gearing up for the release of their brand new album “Katharsis” which is set for release on October 18th via M-Theory Audio. The band will also be hitting the road with Atreyu for a month-long North American tour run.

Produced, engineered, mixed and mastered by Kane Churko (Five Finger Death Punch, Ozzy Osbourne,
Papa Roach), “Katharsis” marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the story of SANTA CRUZ,
who made impressive waves on both sides of the Atlantic in the five-year period following the release of
their acclaimed 2013 debut. In Europe, the group scored two Top 5 albums in their home country,
supported the likes of AC/DC and delivered memorable performances at major events such as the UK’s
Download Festival. In America, meanwhile, the band appeared on the AXS TV program “Breaking
Band,” played notable gigs such as Rock On The Range and the inaugural Motörboat cruise and
toured alongside I Prevail, Through Fire, Amaranthe and Sebastian Bach.

The band kicked things into high gear with their recent performance at the Louder Than Life Festival in Louisville, Kentucky showing us just how hard they can rock and leaving us desperate for more! At Louder Than Life they shared a festival bill with the likes of Guns n’ Roses, Disturbed, Slipknot and Rob Zombie to only name few! They will also be performing at California’s Aftershock Festival as well!

We had a chance to catch up with the band while out at Louder Than Life to talk about the new album and more and learned that putting this album together was almost a rebuilding process of sorts for the band, especially for Archie Cruz, who relocated to Las Vegas to work on writing the album alongside Churko.

He tells us, “It was a process recording in Vegas, and you know, its’ Vegas! As for the new music, it’s more mature and it much better than it was in the past.” He goes on to say that “rebuilding the band with this album is exactly what I did!”

When speaking about changes within the music industry and which has had the biggest effect on him, Archie tells us, “Lenny Kravitz because he records everything by himself”! We also asked Archie to tell us about reliving emotions when playing live to which he reveals, “When I’m pissed off it is good to get some of that out there, but if I’m feeling good, it can be hard to do a song with deeper emotions.”

The band also tells us that they love to stay on the road as much as possible and in 2020 we can certainly look forward to more touring and that they are most likely going to be staying here in The States for quite a while.

We had a chance to give “Katharsis” an early listen and it is a fantastic album! It is chock full of searing guitar riffs and thought-provoking lyrical content. From the very start of album opener “Changing of Seasons” with its sprawling melody, this album hooks you in from beginning to end. SANTA CRUZ are fearless when it comes to this album and it shows! Their version of the Cyndi Lauper classic “Time After Time” was a real risk and it paid off, as their cover is brilliant”! A definite must listen for 2019!